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BIOCHEMISTRY COURSE DESCRIPTIONS BIOC 1001
- BIOCHEMISTRY I This course introduces current topics and advances in Biochemistry and engages students in the scope and activities of the discipline. It examines the central role of water in biological systems, leading to an introduction of acid-base equilibria, the properties of biological membranes, and the bioenergetics of solutes moving across membranes. It introduces the principles of carbon bonding and electronegativity, leading to coverage of the bioorganic functional groups, whose characteristic properties and reactions combine to create the highly complex biological macromolecule classes of carbohydrates, proteins, nucleic acids, and lipids. ********** BIOC 2001 - BIOCHEMISTRY II Format: Lecture 3 Hours, Laboratory 3 Hours Exclusion: Any version of BIOC 2001 previously offered with a different title This course discusses the structures, properties, reactions, and syntheses of the principal macromolecules in living cells with a major emphasis on the relation between the structures and functions. It also explores elementary enzyme catalysis and covers the paths, key structures, and organization and energetics of primary metabolism including glycolysis, citric acid cycle, beta oxidation of fatty acids, respiratory electron transport, chemiosmotic generation of ATP, and photosynthesis and fatty acid synthesis with an emphasis on bioenergetics, oxidation and reduction, and metabolic fluxes. ********** BIOC 3001 - EXPERIENTIAL BIOCHEMISTRY Format: Integrated Lecture and Laboratory 6 Hours This course teaches students to plan and conduct a range of current biochemical analyses including spectroscopy, gas analyses, and chromatographic separations and imaging, with particular emphasis on the new opportunities opened through high-throughput computerized data capture applied to both established and new instrumental analyses. In parallel it guides students through the processes of plotting, interpreting, and presenting the meaning of their results. ********** BIOC/BIOL 3031 - MOLECULAR ANALYSES Format: Integrated Lecture and Laboratory 6 Hours Exclusion: BIOC 3531 This course focuses on experiential analysis and computer modeling of key concepts of the molecular basis of biology, including nucleic acid structure, synthesis, and replication through template-directed polymerizations. The course builds on these key concepts to explore gene structure, expression, and engineering, leading to the wide-ranging applications of molecular biology to biology, medicine, and diagnostics. ********** BIOC /CHEM 3131 - ORGANIC CHEMISTRY: BIOORGANIC Format: Lecture 3 Hours Note: This course is cross-listed and may therefore count as three credits in either discipline. Honours Chemistry students should register for CHEM 3131 This course presents the principles of organic chemistry as they apply to biochemical problems. Topics covered include enzymic reaction mechanisms, enzyme cofactors, peptide and nucleic acid synthesis, and enzymes in organic synthesis. ********** BIOC 3501 - METABOLISM Format: Lecture 3 Hours This course examines the coordinated biochemical transformations of matter, energy and information through metabolic pathways. It covers metabolic strategies and pathways, including chemoautotrophic, heterotrophic, and photoautotrophic metabolism. It emphasizes carbohydrate and amino acid metabolism, with related topics in lipid, nucleotide, and secondary metabolism. There is a strong emphasis on how organisms integrate metabolic paths, and how fluxes throughpaths are balanced. ********** BIOC 3511/4511 - INDEPENDENT RESEARCH IN BIOCHEMISTRY Format: Independent Research This course provides an opportunity for a student to undertake research of a topic in which she or he has a special interest. The student and a faculty member must jointly plan the research project. ********** BIOC 3521 - PROTEIN BIOCHEMISTRY Format: Lecture 3 Hours, Laboratory 3 Hours This course examines the relations between protein structure and function at the primary,secondary, tertiary, and quaternary levels; enzyme catalysis and mechanism; isolation, purification, and characterization of proteins; the metabolism of proteins through synthesis and degradation; and recent trends in protein design. Students learn sequence comparison, motif searching, and development of visual protein structures constructed from the protein structural data bases available over the web. The course introduces mass spectroscopic analyses of the proteome and protein sequencing. ********** BIOC/BIOL 3711 - BIOCHEMICAL ECOLOGY Format: Seminar 3 Hours Note: This course is cross-listed and may therefore count as three credits in either discipline. This course deals with the biochemistry of interactions between animals, plants, and microorganisms that occur in the natural environment. It places strong emphasis is placed on the role of 'secondary metabolites' or 'natural products' such as alkaloids, flavonoids, terpenoids, etc., in the insect-plant, vertebrate-plant, plant-plant, and vertebrate-vertebrate relationships. ********** BIOC 3911/3921/4911/4921 - SELECTED TOPICS IN BIOCHEMISTRY Format: Variable These courses deal with different selected areas in Biochemistry. The course content and format vary depending on the particular area of biochemistry to be covered. ********* BIOC 4011 - IMMUNOCHEMISTRY Format: Lecture 3 Hours This course explains the core molecular structures of the immune system: antibodies and their interactions with antigens. It places these molecular interactions in the context of the cells and tissues of the immune system and the signaling cascades that regulate immune responses. The course concludes with topics in immunology and applications of immunochemistry. ********* BIOC 4021 - LIPID AND MEMBRANE BIOCHEMISTRY Format: Lecture 3 Hours This course covers the metabolism of major classes of lipids, their roles in signal transduction, and their interactions with proteins. ********* BIOC 4031 (3CR) - SIGNAL TRANSDUCTION Format: Lecture 3 Hours Exclusion: BIOC 4501 This course examines 'traditional' theories and modeling of biochemical regulation at the levels of substrate, enzyme (particularly through phosphorylation networks), gene transcription, and protein translation. It compares this traditional approach to alternative systems based approaches of metabolic control theory and looks at how biochemical systems adapt to drastic modification through gene knockouts or protein over expression, and examines how some of these recent approaches pose a serious challenge to conventional thinking on biochemistry and physiology. ********** BIOC/CHEM 4351 (3CR) - INORGANIC CHEMISTRY: BIOINORGANIC Format: Lecture 3 Hours Note: This course is cross-listed and may therefore count as three credits in either discipline. This course examines the roles metals play in biochemical systems and includes an overview of bioinorganic chemistry and a discussion of metals in medicine . ********** BIOC 4903 (3CR) - CURRENT ADVANCES IN BIOCHEMISTRY Format: Seminar 3 Hours This is a seminar course for Honours students in Biochemistry, which critically evaluates a wide range of topics from the current literature. Students are expected to deliver seminars on topics outside their thesis areas and to present preliminary thesis results. ********** BIOC 4990 (6CR) - HONOURS THESIS Format: Independent Study/Thesis The honours thesis is based upon a program of original student research conducted with the advice of an academic supervisor. |
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